Jewellery made from human milk: Photos

New mothers will be able to turn their own breast milk into jewellery, under
techniques to be demonstrated by a group of artists.

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Photo: DUENDE COLLECTIVE

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Photo: DUENDE COLLECTIVE

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Photo: DUENDE COLLECTIVE

By Matthew Moore

10:09AM BST 17 Jul 2008

The first range of milk necklaces, bracelets and other ornaments are to go on display later this year.

The jewellery is made by boiling human milk mixed with vinegar.

This causes the casein protein in the milk to harden into a plastic, which can then be painted and moulded into any shape.

A milk model of a baby’s head which can be used as a pendant for a necklace, and a combined milk-metal bracelet, are among the objects already created by the French design collective Duende.

Their work, which they call "perle de lait" (milk pearl), is to go on display at an exhibition exploring the sharing of food between mother and child in September.

Their other exhibits will include dishes for storing – and eating – a human placenta.

Although the milk jewellery technique is relatively new and has not yet been trialled commercially, the Duende collective say that it envisages the day when all mothers will be able to send a bottle of their milk to a laboratory to obtain a permanent memento of their pregnancy.

The exhibition "La part des Anges" opens at the La Cuisine gallery in Nègrepelisse, France on Sept 13.